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Tuesday, 24 January 2017

New gaming mats for Malifaux from Playmaty.pl - review

I've already had the pleasure of reviewing some mats from Playmaty before (here and here) so I was more than happy when the company contacted me about having al look at some of their new products.

Let's begin with a new slough-themed mat. What strikes you first when you look at this one are nice, vibrant and warm colors. The print has a realistic feel to it and what's more, whatever terrain you put onto it seems to work well (as you can see in the pictures below).

All the deployment zones are there of course. I think a perfect balance between visibility and not breaking the coherent look has been struck here. It's really easy to notice them at first glance but the don't stand in contrast to the print.

And last but not least - the new material. The print is made on 2mm thick rubber. It means that it is significantly heavier than the standard one. What is more important is that it unfolds much better. It stays perfectly flat and even the edges look great. This is really important as it's a big improvement in production. As you can see in one of the pictures below, the desert - themed mat has this issue and it requires special arrangement of terrain to keep the edges flat. With rubber mat you can forget about such problems.

The second mat is another new product. It's made from eco leather. It means that the material is more durable and slightly thicker than a standard mat. It's is thinner than the rubber one and lighter. However, it also lays perfectly flat when unfolded.

The print shows a very nicely detailed paved plaza. The design is clever as the way cobblestones are arranged reflects deployment zones, making it much easier to start a game and count Victory Points during the game.

Hazardous and severe are terrain types that can have huge influence on a game of Malifaux. I strongly believe that they should be included in a table set up as they ad a lot of tactical option and force both players to think more creatively. Unfortunately, they are often not present on many Malifaux tables.

2D terrain can be an excellent solution here. I had a chance to test some of these and will describe my impressions. First of all, there are river modules. They fit together perfectly, and look really good when arranged on a mat (as you can see in the picture below).

There are also other types of 2D terrain that experts from Playmaty have designed. I tested Toxic Pond in one game and was really happy with it. It's relatively small and doesn't take up too much space on the board. It also means that adding it to the terrain won't be difficult, but it will definitely make your games more exciting.

Stony meadow is another option available. I personally feel that in a game of Malifaux, where height of terrain plays such an important part, it doesn't bring that many interesting options. In games I played it was used just as severe terrain. However, I can easily imagine these being used as viable options in games like WARMACHINE.

There are other interesting types of 2D terrain available. There's a frozen river module, fog, burning forest. Each of these will bring more options to your gaming tables.

Overall, I am really happy with the direction the company has taken. New mats are improved in terms of quality of print and material and 2D terrain can be a great addition if you want to make your games more interesting and challenging. I am looking forward to seeing more from Playmats in the future!